Spacewatch: ISS is Christmas evening object

The ISS has returned to Britain's evening sky for the Christmas and new year. Our predictions show it climbing from the W and sometimes disappearing into the Earth's shadow in the directions flagged by asterisks.

Russia's Phobos-Grunt Mars spacecraft remains stranded in Earth orbit. Its average height has fallen from 275 to 230 km in the 6 weeks since its launch and I estimate that it will re-enter within a few days of 11 January. The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, expects that the highly toxic fuel on board will burn up on re-entry, though as many as 30 chunks of the craft will survive to reach the ground somewhere between 51.4° N and S of the Equator.